Variety reported on Friday that Sony had signed an agreement with Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder that will allow the studio to develop the edgy comic strip for both television and feature-length projects.  McGruder and his partner Reggie Hudlin (House Party, Serving Sara) are working on both a pilot script (for TV) and an animated feature treatment.  According to Variety, Sony is hoping to sell the TV project this year and have it on the air for the 2004-2005 season.  The movie project will take longer to develop, although McGruder and Hudlin have 'already mapped out the general idea' for the animated feature.

The Boondocks newspaper comic strip is focused on two inner-city kids, Huey and Riley, who move to the suburbs with their grandfather.  While the comic strip is filled with topical political and cultural references, the movie and TV projects will be more character-driven.  In large part this is because of the long lead-times required for television projects (movies take even longer to develop), which contrast sharply with the Boondocks newspaper strip, where McGruder is often working only a week ahead of publication and filling his strip with references to topics such as the war in Iraq and the American Idol television series.